It was scoreless for three, but in the fourth, Hanshin shortstop Atsushi Fujimoto slashed a double down the rightfield line and second baseman Makoto Imaoka turned him in with a double to leftcenter for a 1-0 lead. Imaoka went to third on a subsequent groundout. However, the next two men popped up to minimize the damage.

In the bottom of the inning, though, centerfielder Tuffy Rhodes singled to right with one out and was erased on a 6-4 groundout off the bat of rightfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi. First baseman Kazuhiro Kiyohara, making his first start in four games, got a first pitch 88mph fastball down and middle out and insideouted it into the rightfield bleachers to put the Giants on top 2-1. The burly slugger needs 16 more of those for 500 during his career. 

Kisanuki wasn't giving the Tigers much to play with at all until the seventh, when catcher Akihiro Yano singled to left with two outs. For whatever reason, manager Akinobu Okada allowed Igawa to hit and he rammed a shot up the leftcenter alley. Rhodes tracked the ball down and gunned it toward the plate, where Giants receiver Shinnosuke Abe had ball in hand and the plate blocked for the tag and the out. 

Now it was Yomiuri's time at bat and third baseman Hiroki Kokubo singled to left. Abe went with a 90mph fastball down and away and scorched it to the opposite field and into the leftfield seats for his 20th circuit clout of the year and a 4-1 advantage. Two outs later, second baseman Toshihisa Nishi singled to center. Leftfielder Takayuki Shimizu yanked an Igawa delivery into the rightfield stands. Rhodes went up looking fastball and instead selected a hanging slider and launched it beyond the centerfield wall to make it 7-1 Giants and knock Igawa out of the game. 

In the eighth, Kokubo walked and Abe laced a shot into the leftfield corner for a double, Kokubo, bad knees and all, rumbling home from first to put it at 8-1 Yomiuri.

Hanshin offered token resistence in the ninth on a single to left by rightfielder Shinjiro Hiyama and a double into the leftfield corner from first baseman George Arias that allowed Hiyama to traverse the basepaths and reach the dish to shrink the deficit to 8-2. The next three men then went down in order, Ikuro Katsuragi striking out to end it. 

Abe has reached 20 homers faster than anyone in either MLB or NPB history. Mark McGwire held the previous world record at 35 games while Abe pulled it off in 33. The Japan record had been 38 games by Seibu first baseman Alex Cabrera in 2001. Seven or nine of those homers, depending on which report you want to believe, have exited to left. He is also the first catcher to be the first man in a season to the 20 mark since Koichi Tabuchi in 1975. The only other backstop to accomplish that was Nankai Hawks hall of famer Katsuya Nomura, who did it in 1957, 1961 and 1962. Abe is also leading at present in all three Triple Crown categories. 

Igawa is doing his team no good right now. Hanshin has lost all four of the lefthander's most recent starts and he is also 0-2 against Yomiuri in 2004 after going 3-0 with an 0.75 ERA against them in 2003. 

Rhodes is on pace for 67 homers. If the Central League pitching staffs are going to make an adjustment, they had better do it now. 

Kisanuki was clocked at 92mph and his fastball had more zip on it than his previous start, when he seemed kind of dead out there. It is his first shiroboshi since April 10th. 

Kiyohara needs 11 more hits for 2000. His wife Aki and one year old son Shogo where in the stands taking this one in. 

At 33 straight tilts with at least one tater, Yomiuri is only two away from tying Seibu's Japan record 35. 
 

Photo:  Shinnosuke Abe Tags Hanshin Catcher Akihiro Yano Out

Dragons manager Hiromitsu Ochiai dropped seocnd baseman Masahiro Araki from second to eighth in the order since the lighthitting infielder was only producing at a .234 clip, but Ishido plunked him anyway with one out in the second. One out later, Masahiko Morino singled to center and Araki motored to third. Ibata hammered a hot off the glove of third baseman Akinori Iwamura for an infield hit and a 1-0 lead.

Yakult retaliated bigtime in the top of the third, as rightfielder Billy Martin singled to right and went to second on a sac bunt (with thepitcher's spot coming up?). Ishido seared a double to leftcenter and Martin wound his way plateward. Vargas nailed centerfielder Atsunori Inaba with a pitch. Second baseman Katsuyuki Dobashi singled to right to plate Ishido. One out later, leftfielder Alex Ramirez
smacked one up the rightcenter gap to usher Inaba and Dobashi in for a 4-1 Swallows advantage. 

The Dragons rebelled, though, in the home portion when Ochoa singled to center and leftfielder Kazuki Inoue walked. Tanishige pounded a shot off the leftfield wall and both Ochoa and Inoue galloped across the plate on the double to close within 4-3 Yakult.

In the fourth, it became a whole new ballgame when Ibata got aboard on a one out infield hit, rightfielder Kosuke Fukudome lined a two out forkball for a double to rightcenter that cashed in the speedy Ibata and Ochoa singled to center on another forkball to cash Fukudome in to pull in front 5-4. 

An inning later, Tanishige upped that to 6-4 by rocketing an Ishido offering into the leftfield bleachers. Araki singled to center and was sacrificed to second and then he went to third on a groundout. Ibata walked. Third baseman Kazuyoshi Tatsunami singled to center to slingshot Araki across and make it 7-4 Dragons.

Ochoa then sent in another contribution in the sixth, taking rookie Masaru Sato on a tour of the rightfield stands for an 8-4 lead.

Fukudome doubled down the leftfield line to begin the eighth and went to third on a ground ball. With Tanishige at the plate, reliever Tatsuki Yamamoto unleashed a wild pitch and Fukudome hustled in to widen the Chunichi advantage to 9-4. 

Hitoki Iwase entered from the bullpen for Chunichi in the ninth and catcher Atsuya Furuta reached with one out on an HBP and Tomohito Yoneno was inserted to pinch run for him. Yoneno stole second. Following another out, second baseman Noriyuki Shiroishi doubled into the rightfield corner and Yoneno scored easily. Munehiro Shida singled to right. Inaba singled to right to send Shiroishi in and bring the tying run to the plate. But pinch hitter Hirobumi Watarai flied out to right and that was the ballgame. 

Vargas has an interesting background. His first job was working in a baber shop at age nine in his native Dominican Republic and he even recieved training in that occupation, according to one Japanese press report. He wants to open a baseball school for children in his homeland. 

Furuta blamed himself for the loss, saying that he should have been more daring with his pitch calling. 
 

Photo:  Alex Ochoa Swinging the Big Stick

Photo:  Martin Vargas Finishes His Delivery

Kuroda went eight occasionally difficult innings on 11 hits and three runs and fell to 3-3.

Things began inauspiciously for Yoshimi when Carp centerfielder Koichi Ogata got a fastball up in the zone leading off the game and jacked it into the centerfield seats for an instant 1-0 lead. 

Kuroda extricated himself out of a two on,  one out squeeze in the bottom of the first by striking shortstop Seiichi Uchikawa and centerfielder Katsuaki Furuki out. 

In the third, Hiroshima had two on with one away and couldn't get their motor running and stalled. But in the bottom segment, second baseman Hitoshi Taneda, who has been in exile since Yamashita chose to go with the youth movement, buried a Kuroda delivery in the leftfield bleachers to knot it at one all. Uchikawa and Furuki singled to right. First baseman Tyrone Woods singled to center and Uchikawa registered the run to go in front 2-1.

Hiroshima surged back in the fourth on a walk to shortstop Andy Sheets, a single to right by leftfielder Tomonori Maeda that enabled Sheets to turn and burn for third and a groundout to short from first baseman Kenta Kurihara that rbought Sheets in to make it 2-2.

Yokohama, though, anchored themselves to the head of the line when they took their wacks in the frame, as Yoshimi doubled to rightcenter with one out and went to third on a groundout. Uchikawa was jammed slightly on a fastball, but singled to right and it was 3-2 Stars. 

Hiroshima wasted a two on, one out and then a bases loaded and two out opportunity in the fifth and this one was basically over from that point on, Kazuhiro Sasaki inducing a pair of groundouts and a strikeout in the ninth to clinch it. 

Ogata now has 21 homers lifetime leading off a first inning, tied for seventh most all time with teammate Kenjiro Nomura. 

By the way, Kamisaka's supension has ended and he can now play in top level games. 
 

On a non-Japanese baseball note, Mariners DH Edgar Martinez, who will probably (and hopefully indeed will) retire after this season, slugged his 300th career homer, a three run shot in the ninth. He thus becomes only the sixth player in history to rack up 300 dingers, 500 doubles, 1,000 walks, a .300 batting average and a .400 OBP. The others? Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby, Ted Williams and Stan Musial. First ballot hall of famer? You bet!

San Diego reliever Akinori Otsuka came on in the eighth inningWednesday with the Padres ahead 2-1 and retired the Cinicnnati Reds order 1-2-3 on nine pitches, striking out Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn on a 91mph fastball and a slider respectively. 

Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui went 0-4 Wednesday in a six hour and 15 minute rain interrupted ten inning marathon. The Bronx Bombers prevailed on rightfielder Gary Sheffield's walkoff RBI single to deep left at 1:23 a.m. It is the latest that Godzilla has ever finished a game in his career, the latest he's ever played in being against Chunichi on August 30, 1996 that ended at 11:48 p.m.

Meiji University righthander Yasuhiro Ichiba, a top prospect for the November pro draft as well as an obehct of affection for MLB scouts,  got into his third straight game, this time as a starter, and went all the way in a 153 pitch 8-3 victory. He struckout seven. 

Mets shortstop Kazuo Matsui, if his career ended tomorrow, would already have some memories of his short MLB career to last a lifetime. Wednesday, he drilled a 1-0 91mph knee high middle out fastball from Arizona Diamondbacks future Hall of Fame lefty

St. Louis outfieder So Taguchi made a start Wednesday and homered to left  on a pitch down in the zone from Atlanta lefthander Mike Hampton. ESPN's color commentator, Jeff Brantley, then went on and on about how Hampton couldn't believe it and that he didn't think Taguchi could go deep, either. 

Brantley, noting another rough outing by Texas righthander Chan-ho Park, accused the Korean moundsman of "stealing money" for his failures since leaving the Dodgers. This is becoming something of a pattern for the former well travelled reliever, who hasn't said anything similar about any non-Asian players. Moreover, he's never made any analogous remarks about small statured non-Asian players like the one he made about Taguchi. 

While I've had doubts from the get go about Taguchi's viability as an MLB player and predicted that the often mentally fragile Park would fall on  his face leaving the comfy cocoon of L.A. and its substantial Korean-American community not to mention Dodger Stadium, where batting averages go to die, I've also not hesitated in going after players of all nationalities who I don't think belong in an MLB or NPB uniform. Somebody at ESPN needs to sit down with Brantley and air him out on this issue. I don't care if he speaks his mind and hammers players, but I do want to see some fairness in who he chooses as his targets and how he selects his words.  He could have accused Jeff Cirillo of "stealing money" in Seattle since Jeff didn't do anything there despite a fat contract, but didn't. He could have talked about Hampton's problems in Colorado while making trawler  loads of cash but didn't. So why did he choose Park? And when Juan Pierre takes somebody over the wall, will he also say, "I can't believe it"? Let's wait and see.